Education and Attachment: Guidelines to Prevent School Failure

Abstract

Portuguese schools have high student failure and early school leaving rates (Pordata, 2017) giving rise to a number of initiatives aimed at their reduction. The "Alternative Curricular Course" (ACC) promotes the learning of basic skills, specifically in Portuguese language and Mathematics, to support logical reasoning and artistic, vocational, and professional development. Its main goal is the fulfilment of compulsory schooling and the reduction of academic failure. Research based on attachment theory (Bowlby, 1969) suggests that different internal working models of attachment are associated with different characteristics of social, academic, emotional, and behavioural competencies that may interfere in the quality of relationships that young people establish in school, especially with teachers, and also influence their academic performance. This study evaluates the relationship between internal working models of students, their perceptions of the quality of their relationships with teachers, and their academic performance using three measures: (i) the "Inventory of Attachment in Childhood and Adolescence" (IACA) measure, (ii) the "Inventory of Parent and Peer Attachment" (IPPA) measure-concerning the attachment to teacher", and (iii) a socio-demographic questionnaire on a sample of 305 students from the 8th grade of regular education (RE) and the ACC. The results reveal that students on the ACC exhibit a less secure internal working model than students in RE, and that the perception of the quality of the student-teacher relationship, regarding the dimension of acceptance and understanding by the teachers, is associated with a better academic performance. These results align with those of other recent studies in support of the conclusion that the process of attachment has a significant influence on educational contexts, consistent with attachment and related theories.

The Relationship Between Demographic Features and Iranian EFL Teachers’ Attachment Style

“…The positive relationship between teacher and children provides them the emotional security needed for engaging in learning activities and improving their social, behavioral, and self-controlling competencies (Barker, 2015;Granot & Mayseless, 2001). Thus, the attachment styles of teachers and students deserve some attention, and it is a topic worth researching because the quality of early attachments determines the quality of adults' academic, emotional, and social abilities (de Castro & Pereira, 2019).…”

“…However, the main point is that, in school, this attachment figure is usually a teacher. Children failing to bond with their attachment figures in their early life may later develop significant attachments with their teachers (Bergin & Bergin, 2009;de Castro & Pereira, 2019;Polek, 2008).…”

“…Hazan and Shaver (1987) maintain that the perceptions about children's relationships with parents, and their parents' relationship with each other, are the best predictors of adult attachment styles. A few studies attribute children's cognitive skills and school achievements to their secure attachment to parents (Cassidy et al, 2013;de Castro & Pereira, 2019;Granot & Mayseless, 2001). Gervai (2009) mentions that environmental and biological factors may exert influence on adulthood's attachment style, and there is also the number of significant relationships, which increase as children mature (Veríssimo et al, 2017).…”

Funciones ejecutivas y autoestima en el desempeño académico: un análisis mediacional

“…A recurring issue in the educational community is school failure (de Castro & Pereira, 2019;Fernández-Mellizo & Martínez-García, 2017). The debate about the factors that likely underlie it is refueled every time PISA reports are published (Caro & Kyriakides, 2019;Davis, 2019).…”

Academic Causes of School Failure in Secondary Education in Spain: The Voice of the Protagonists

“…Aware of these educational and social needs in which school failure is implicated, various studies have studied them from different perspectives. Focusing on factors, the personal characteristics of students are of great interest when investigating school failure and academic performance (Choi and Calero 2013;De Castro and Fialho 2019;Pulido and Herrera 2016). There are also authors who consider the social and family context as elemental in its influence on student performance and the formation of this phenomenon (Chaparro et al 2016;Ibabe 2016;Mínguez et al 2019;Moreno 2010;Pérez and Betancort 2013;Fernández et al 2011).…”